Valentine’s Day, now a celebration of romance and a holiday covered in pristine roses and corny cards, stems from the ancient Roman holiday of Lupercalia. Observed on February 13^th – 15^th during Pre-Christian Rome, Lupercalia was meant to purify Rome and leave it in health and fertility. Going along with the fertility theme, men wearing goatskins would go around the city, striking women who wished to conceive a child. The women wouldn’t shy away because they believed it would help them to conceive.

Nearly 300 years later, on February 14^th, a Roman priest called Valentine was executed. The Emperor at the time, Claudius II was worried that his soldiers were not committed to fighting because they kept getting married and didn’t want to abandon their wives. Valentine recognized that these men were in love and continued to perform weddings in secret. He was found out and imprisoned, during which time he cured his jailor’s daughter of her blindness and became fast friends with her. Before his execution, he left her a letter signed “From Your Valentine.”

At this time in Rome, Christianity was still fairly new, so the Feast of Lupercalia was still going on. Because Valentine’s death occurred during Lupercalia, Valentine’s name became associated with romance because he died for the marriage of young people in love.

As Christianity grew in Rome, many Christians felt threatened by old pagan traditions. In 496, the Pope declared that February 14^th would be the feast of St. Valentine, or St. Valentine’s Day, no longer Lupercalia.

Around 500 years ago, Valentine’s Day references started to appear, love letters and poems were written, and cards with frilly edges were sent. The commercialized holiday we know now first appeared during the Victorian Era in England, in which Valentine’s Day became so huge that cards began to be manufactured in factories, often made with real lace and ribbons.

Valentine’s Day Today:

224 million roses grown for Valentine’s Day

$13.2 billion spent on Valentine’s Day

6 million people expecting or planning a marriage proposal on Valentine’s Day

145 million Valentine’s Day cards purchased

This Valentine’s Day, remember the holiday is not about commercialized cards and discounted chocolate, but rather about showing your sweetheart how much they mean to you (without the goat meat).

-From Your Valentine